On 14 October 2026, AgriSA utilized its 2026 Congress under the theme “The Path is Clear” to lay out a consolidated mandate for action designed to drive the next phase of South African agricultural growth. Addressing delegates, AgriSA leadership stressed that progress will rely on stronger institutions, clear accountability, and deeper collaboration between government, commodity organizations, commercial enterprises, and farmers.
“You can farm individually, but you cannot build agriculture individually,” declared AgriSA President Willem de Chavonnes Vrugt.
The organization’s strategy centres on five policy Centres of Excellence:
Land and Development: Moving past mere ownership transfer toward creating commercially viable enterprises backed by secure property rights, credible beneficiary selection, adequate financing, and post-settlement support.
Natural Resources: Prioritizing urgent water governance and infrastructure improvements alongside climate adaptation, biodiversity protection, and sustainable practices.
Labour and Skills: Seeking a predictable wage-setting framework, a dedicated agricultural visa, agricultural college reform, aligned skills funding, and practical solutions for rural housing and transport.
Rural Safety: Framing safety as a vital economic and investment priority that requires stronger policing, intelligence-led enforcement, formal SAPS cooperation, and mechanisms allowing rural communities to bolster their own safety.
Economics and Trade: Boosting competitiveness through port, rail, and road logistics reform, energy pricing, embedded generation, trade diversification, biosecurity, rural broadband, and tax/investment policy certainty.
AgriSA President Willem de Chavonnes Vrugt emphasized that the central challenge facing the sector is no longer simply asking what government should do, but rather identifying which institutions are best placed to deliver specific functions and coordinating those capabilities.
Because South African agriculture operates through a network of public entities, commodity groups, provincial structures, and local producers, AgriSA’s role is to link these layers—bringing farm-level evidence into national policy while translating decisions back down into value chains.
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“The five mandates give us the substance. Our network gives us the reach. Our partnerships give us leverage. What matters now is execution by all organizations that have an impact on agriculture,” Vrugt noted.
With the endorsement of this mandate, execution across these five core focus areas now stands at the centre of AgriSA’s agenda for the period ahead.